Almost Home

I took this last night on the approach to La Guardia after a trip to DC. The stewardess only asked me to turn the phone off after I'd finished taking pictures. It's okay if you plunge everyone to death by avionics failure if you're in first class.

I don't really buy into the mindset that iPods and other non-broadcasting electronics are capable of electromagnetic leaping ninja kicks. The whole idea of turning off anything electronic during takeoff and landing is overkill. There has to be a good debunk of this somewhere online.

For takeoff, maybe, but there's no FAA requirement to listen to the safety briefing, only that it be given.

Seems no one is sure - the cellphone ban is because the FCC nixed it for interference with ground signals - an airborne cellphone might access multiple antenna at once, and fifty thousand airborne cellphones would cause havoc - but the frequency bands for cellphones and wi-fi are different to those used for (anything, afaik, to with) aviation.

Any system that doesn't interfere in-flight - laptops, wi-fi (now available on planes), iPods, etc shouldn't interfere for landing.

I reckon there's value in people being aware of their surroundings more at landing for safety reasons, but the 'interferes with instruments' reason just doesn't make sense to me...